Cuban teen in the military returned to a certain death BY HELEN AGUIRRE FERRÉHAGUIRREFERRE@GMAIL.COM 11/29/2014 2:00 PM 11/29/2014 7:00 PM Like most other 18-year-olds, Dayro Andino Leon was determined to find his own way in the world. For Dayro, that meant leaving his home and country. Living in Cuba’s police state was not what he […] Continue reading →

Of Jails In Cuba / Ivan Garcia Posted on October 14, 2014 For Saul prison is like his second home. He celebrated his 63rd birthday behind bars, fabricating cement and gravel blocks for a Cuban state enterprise called Provari, which makes everything from bricks, tiles and mattresses to insecticides and sells them for hard currency. […] Continue reading →

More Cuban Rafters Escaping Communist Failure But Needing Capitalist Help By TIM PADGETT José asked that I not use his last name to protect his family back home in Cuba. He arrived in Florida two weeks ago on a homemade raft, the kind of illegal exit that makes you a counter-revolutionary – a gusano, or […] Continue reading →

Cuban Military Officer ‘Held At Detention Centre’ By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net MINISTER of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell has refused to confirm or deny reports that a Cuban military officer is being held at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre. According to reports, Mayor (Major) Ortelio Abrahantes was taken to the Bahamas […] Continue reading →

Remembering the Tugboat Massacre of 1994 / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo Posted on July 27, 2014 During the summer of 1994, death ruled with impunity in my country. During that period, Cuba, which had been a civilian graveyard for decades, more closely resembled the gallows. In the early hours of July 13, the whirlwind of […] Continue reading →

The Massacre in Canimar River: 34th Anniversary / By Enrisco in the Blog of Luis Felipe Rojas Posted on July 12, 2014 By Enrisco Today, July 6th, is the 34th anniversary of what is regarded as (only by a few certainly) as “The Massacre in Canimar River” because 14 years before the sinking of the […] Continue reading →

Cuba: Join HRF and DDC for “20 minutes of silence for 20 years of impunity” [09-07-2014 00:01:00] Human Rights Foundation (www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (July 8, 2014)—Directorio Democrático Cubano (DDC) and the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) invite you to join in a symbolic act of peaceful protest in honor of the 20-year anniversary of the “13 […] Continue reading →

Posted on Monday, 07.07.14 Cuba: Team boots 2 pitchers after defection bids THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HAVANA — Villa Clara pitchers Diosdani Castillo and Yasmany Hernandez Romero have been indefinitely kicked off their club after they recently attempted to defect, according to Cuban official media. The Vanguardia newspaper of Villa Clara province said Castillo and Hernandez […] Continue reading →

Cuba: On the 20th aniversary of the tugboat massacre [02-07-2014 09:55:43] Maria C. Werlau Directora Ejecutiva de la organización de derechos humanos sin fines de lucro Cuba Archive (www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- Summit, New Jersey. Among the most flagrant atrocities committed by the Castro regime in its long history of human rights’ abuses, two incidents stand out that […] Continue reading →

Children Screaming / Armando Anel, Luis Felipe Rojas Posted on June 30, 2014 By Armando Añel What happened can be briefly summarised: on July 13th 1994 – 17 years ago today – at the crack of dawn, 72 people tried to escape from the island in a tug. When they were some 12 km from […] Continue reading →

Posted on Monday, 05.19.14 Cuban exiles to commemorate tugboat drownings THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MIAMI — The 20th anniversary of the deaths of 41 Cubans trying to cross the Florida Straits is being remembered with a flotilla. The Miami Democracy Movement plans to announce details Wednesday for a July event commemorating the tragedy. The drownings occurred […] Continue reading →

Cuban doctor defects in Brazil over pay, plans to seek asylum BRASILIA Wed Feb 5, 2014 9:32am EST (Reuters) – A Cuban doctor working in Brazil has sought political asylum in the office of a conservative party complaining that Cuba’s communist government takes too big a slice of her pay, a party official said on […] Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 12.12.13 Cuban pastor says he was denied permission to travel abroad BY JUAN O. TAMAYO JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM A Cuban pastor who has been harshly critical of the government says he was denied permission to travel abroad last month for a religious gathering even though his passport and visa were all in order. Bernardo […] Continue reading →

I am the Woman Who was Raped by an Immigration Officer in the Bahamas / CID Posted on September 27, 2013 My name is Maireni Saborio Gonzales, I am 23 years old and I live in city of Caibarien, Villa Clara. I left as a boat person or rafter on September 25, 2012 and I […] Continue reading →

Una Noche, A Film about Cuba You Have to See September 16th, 2013 – 10:39 am Reading Charles Lane’s important column in The Washington Post about a new indie film, Una Noche (One Night), I promptly rented it “On Demand” on my cable system. It is also available as an iTunes download. Filmmaker Lucy Mulloy […] Continue reading →

Posted on Tuesday, 09.10.13 At least 2 migrants drown, 23 rescued trying to flee Cuba BY JUAN O. TAMAYO JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM At least two Cubans drowned and 23 were rescued after their boat capsized during an attempt to escape from the island, and Border Guards tried to deny assistance to a group that had been in […] Continue reading →

Categories of Human Beings / Rosa Maria Paya Posted on July 7, 2013 Where are the documentaries about the Bahamian concentration camps where there are school-age children and women with their lips sewn shut? It has been a few weeks since South Florida’s media and social networks have been denouncing the systematic abuses to which [...] Continue reading →

Posted on Tuesday, 05.28.13 Small fleet of Cuban boats grows in the Keys BY KEVIN WADLOW AND DAVID GOODHUE KeysNet.com Boats assembled from roofing tin, scrap lumber and foam plastic form a ramshackle fleet moored off Islamorada’s Whale Harbor. “People have to be really desperate to go to sea aboard one of these,” said Officer [...] Continue reading →

Cuba Prohibits Its Citizens from Boarding Boats March 28, 2013 Fernando Ravsberg HAVANA TIMES — A few days ago I went to Guanacabibes Peninsula, in the extreme west of the country. It's an unspoiled nature reserve where one can see iguanas, deer, crocodiles and all kinds of birds – in addition to a wonderful seabed. [...] Continue reading →

Cuba Travel: Baseball Star Rey Ordonez Allowed To Return Home Thanks To Obama Travel Policies Posted: 03/19/2013 9:44 am EDT Cuba When Rey Ordóñez defected from Cuba in 1993, he became only the second baseball player to leave a club on his native island and try to make it in Major League Baseball. Throughout the [...] Continue reading →

Cuban Professionals: Emigrate or Suffer November 10, 2012 Daisy Valera HAVANA TIMES — The joke going around these days on the buses of the Ministry of Science goes: Manuel asks his neighbor (who works for a company in the upscale Miramar neighborhood) to help him get a job for his son. The neighbor replies: 'No [...] Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 11.01.12 Sharp surge in Cuban migrants seeking to reach US The number of Cuban migrants to arrive in the U.S. or attempt to leave the island for the just-ended fiscal year was 13,000, the largest since 2008. By Al Chardy achardy@elnuevoherald.com Roberto Treto Rodríguez had been thinking about leaving Cuba for years. [...] Continue reading →

To Leave and Return is a Right / Reinaldo Escobar Reinaldo Escobar, Translator: Unstated Although the fever to comment on the new travel and immigration legislation has already passed, I don't want to let it pass me by. To those who ask me in circumstances where there's little time to respond, I tell them the [...] Continue reading →

Upgrade of Cuban Migration Policy? / Jeovany Jimenez Vega Jeovany J. Vega, Translator: mlk It is already a fact: the awaited "migration reforms", announced by Raul Castro a month and a half ago, arrive with a lot of noise — much ado about nothing. Published "casually" five days before the elections for delegates to the [...] Continue reading →

Idle Human Capital / Fernando Damaso Fernando Damaso, Translator: Eduardo Alemán In Cuba there are a ton of professionals and technicians who have graduated from universities and who are not directly linked to profitable enterprises, but to political, administrative and bureaucratic tasks. In addition, due to recent drastic cuts in state employment, there are thousands [...] Continue reading →